Thai Gay Blog, In English And Thai

[craftwork]

This blog is written by a young Thai and a westerner living in Bangkok. It has no advertising, just wants readers.

Recent posts:

Gays showing in public

Hooked on the net

Looking for work

Direct sales

Lazy beggars

Selfish society

'Tae' Sattawat's innocent kiss

My boyfriend, the groupie

Karaoke adventures

'Hor Taew Taek' and 'Friends': Where's your courage, Sia?

Boyfriend has cancer

ATM card blues

Gay marriage - who needs it?

Working for farang

Pic posts

You will have to configure the address yourself, as board rules forbid me providing a direct link: bkkmindscape.blogspot.com

[jdinasia]

have seen that blog before .. just never found it interesting. Hope others get more out of it than I have!

[craftwork]

Thank you for getting the ball rolling, JD. I can always rely on you to keep a thread going with your critical comments.

Without people such as you commenting, threads such as mine can sunk unloved on board until they disappear over onto the next page. No need to worry about that, now!

I have posted a similar version of this advertisement on Thai-language gay webboards, where the response was more positive. I have hesitated putting anything here, as I know a noisy minority of posters are fond of criticising for its own sake.

But as I say, even negative comments such as yours help keep threads active - more lively than the chatroom at gay.com, anyway. Right, JD?

I recall thanking you once before for helping keep my threads active - so 'cheers' once again, mate.

[PeaceBlondie]

The blog contained intresting reviews of recent gay movies such as "Last Song" along with comments from readers.

[jdinasia]

Thank you for getting the ball rolling, JD. I can always rely on you to keep a thread going with your critical comments.

Without people such as you commenting, threads such as mine can sunk unloved on board until they disappear over onto the next page. No need to worry about that, now!

I have posted a similar version of this advertisement on Thai-language gay webboards, where the response was more positive. I have hesitated putting anything here, as I know a noisy minority of posters are fond of criticising for its own sake.

But as I say, even negative comments such as yours help keep threads active - more lively than the chatroom at gay.com, anyway. Right, JD?

I recall thanking you once before for helping keep my threads active - so 'cheers' once again, mate.

You are welcome

Maybe it is just that I expect to be challenged or learn something when I read. Fluff works for some people and not for others. Maybe it is just that I like good writing, who knows! But I am not surprised that some people like it ... maybe someday I'll flog my blog in here too

[craftwork]

I concede that some of it is 'fluff'. That's a trick I learned from bloggers who link to my site. Some get more than 10000 readers a day. They know what their readers want, and try to provide it. I have to do the same, at least some of the time.

However, I find it hard to believe that you cannot learn anything from the blog, or do not find any good writing there. I am a good writer (naturally!) and so are the two young Thai guys who contribute.

Not every foreigner lives with a Thai boyfriend, in a remote part of town. That alone should give this writer a different perspective from those who spend life alone, seldom leave the company of westerners, or dare to leave the Silom comfort zone.

However, if 'interesting' or 'challenging' is a sordid account of yet another night spent inside a Silom go-go boys bar, then I am afraid my blog might be dull reading indeed. I can't pretend that stuff interests me - it doesn't.

It offers something different. One post in the archives, for example, translates from Thai a newspaper story on coyote girls, and another on go-go boys. They interested me, at least when I read them.

Another takes a look at gay conscription, based on an article which appeared in the Thai press. That's another issue which is seldom explored by the English-language media.

In the last few months, in fact, the writers have covered ground well beyond what you would expect to find in a typical gay blog. Some posts are not gay related at all. They have covered topics such as (a Thai's experience of) looking for work, working for farang, and lending money to friends.

It won't appeal to everyone; nothing does. However, I have to balance out the serious stuff with 'fluff' such as pic posts, or people would not come back.You can have too much of serious - don't you agree?

Edited February 4, 2007 by craftwork

[jdinasia]

If you didn't think you were a good writer ... I assume you would not write. If you didn't think the content of your site was what it should be, I assume you would change it.

I am sure that format works well for many readers <so it doesn't for me ... big deal I doubt either of us will lose any sleep over it > I'll stick with more substantial reading

[TopChinese]

I agree with JD.

Fluff.

Next.

[craftwork]

Well, 200 readers a day beg to differ.

Yesterday, Google search queries were the second biggest source of traffic. Most readers directed to the blog come looking for information about gay issues or stars which we have posted about previously.

The blog takes stories from the Thai press and turns them into English. No one else is doing that. Readers get a glimpse of what Thai gays are talking and writing about, not just the small farang or foreign community, who seem to spend their days loitering about gay chatrooms rather than contributing anything meaningful to gay culture.

Gay activists support a law change now before lawmakers, giving husbands equal rights to sue their wives for infidelity. How many foreigners knew that, and why it matters to Thai gays?

I suspect none, because the issue wasn't covered by the straightlaced English language Thai press - one of many stories which go unnoticed.

The webblog authors scan Thai newspapers and webboards every day for potential stories we can turn into blog posts. As I say, no else is providing the service - and the thousands of regular readers who return to the blog every month are testament to the fact that the work is appreciated.

Now, compare that activity with the amount of posting which has gone on in this sub-forum in recent weeks. The place is virtually dead.

Next!

[craftwork]

Actually, I do not know whether people come mainly to read issues of substance, or 'fluff'. I suspect mainly fluff, in which case the blog is probably wasting its time delving into anything of substance. Either way, the blog's readership base is growing, which is a good sign.

I don't want to get into a debate about the meaning of popular culture, but people do take an interest in it, and come looking for information.

That helps build up readers, who could one day bring in advertising money, if the blog ever decides to go that way. The money which web-page owners can make from Google classifieds is significant - and as any successful blog author knows, you have to give the reader what he wants.

[peter991]

I've just had a read through the blog for about 30 minutes. Sure, it's light-weight stuff - but that's what blogs are all about. If I want the NEWS in Thailand, I'll have a read of the Nation or Bangkok Post online. I want the Thailand news headlines, with comments - so I subscribe to ThaiVisa's breaking news.

My blog gets around 25,000 hits a day - and it's a lot less interesting than the Thai blog.

Peter

[jdinasia]

Gossip and fluff ... some people like it! Some don't Pretty simple.

Just helping Craft out by keeping this up high on the list

Edited February 5, 2007 by jdinasia

[craftwork]

Just helping Craft out by keeping this up high on the list

Thanks, JD. I knew I could count on you.

Edited February 5, 2007 by craftwork

[chickengeorge]

It has no advertising,

YET, just wants readers, to then get advertising, right?

Without people such as you commenting, threads such as mine can sunk unloved on board until they disappear over onto the next page.

maybe you should take a look at what you are posting!

I have hesitated putting anything here, as I know a noisy minority of posters are fond of criticising for its own sake.

More like putting a different point of view over which you don't like, right?

But as I say, even negative comments such as yours help keep threads active - more lively than the chatroom at gay.com, anyway. Right, JD?

so JD's negative comments are ok?

So you are still spending too much time in those chatrooms JD, how terrible!

[peter991]

Hey - chatrooms are wonderful places. You can meet some nice, educated gay Thai guys in them.

Peter

[craftwork]

More like putting a different point of view over which you don't like, right?

You are speaking to a veteran of chatroom debates such as this one. If memory serves, I even helped run this sub-forum once, in its early days. I used to get worked up about this and that, just as this poster has, but found I had often grasped the wrong end of the stick, or mistaken the intent of someone's comments as hostile when really they were not. I stopped moderating when I realised I was making too many mistakes.

As for the comment about advertising, one reason I have not opted for it to date is that I don't like the selection of advertisements which Google typically targets at gay sites. Google is quick to remove advertising from blogs which breach its good conduct rules, but seems much less fussy about the ads it accepts, and targets to gay sites.

If you are running a 'family gay blog' (if I may call it that) such as mine, who really wants to get ads for teenage boys' underwear, as I have seen turn up on another gay blog with a similar theme? No thanks.

And no, I don't mind JD's comments. He has been posting on this board a long time, and deserves credit for loyalty, if nothing else.

Edited February 6, 2007 by craftwork

[jdinasia]

why thanks craftwork I have tried hard not to let my personal opinions of other people's lifestyles in Thailand affect how I post on this board

But with your 104 posts ... if I deserve credit for loyalty ... what do you deserve it for?

[PeaceBlondie]

jdinasia, you should know better than to start a debate about number of posts. You haven't been on ThaiVisa much longer than craftwork; you've just been more verbose. But hey, I'm calling the kettle black, having been here a shorter time and having way too many posts....such as this one. Now, back to my fruitcake (really; I'm eating it!!). Was it Marie Antoinette who said, "Let them eat fruitcake"?

Can all those of us who have sinned, find an appropriate place to admit it, and we who love to point fingers at one another, can just eat our fruitcake instead? Which I shall now do...

[craftwork]

I could say much more about people's lifestyles here, but I won't. That's not why I started the thread.

As for the point about the number of posts, I do not post much under the name 'craftwork.'

In fact, I rarely visit the gay sub-forum any more.

However, I did use another name once, and had much more to say about various issues then. That was long before the gay sub-forum even started.

It was as a result of my contribution there that I was invited to become a moderator for the gay sub-forum, though as I say, I soon gave that away, as I couldn't fathom half of what people were saying.

[PeaceBlondie]

If I have a mantra in Thai, it's "mai kojai." I don't know very much, and am shamelessly unashamed to admit it. There's probably a rule #3(a)(iv)(D) against a gay person saying 'fruitcake.' What else are you going to call that stuff? I never had fresh fruitcake before coming here.....oh dear, now that sentence can be reconstructed.....

[jdinasia]

I could say much more about people's lifestyles here, but I won't. That's not why I started the thread.

As for the point about the number of posts, I do not post much under the name 'craftwork.'

In fact, I rarely visit the gay sub-forum any more.

However, I did use another name once, and had much more to say about various issues then. That was long before the gay sub-forum even started.

It was as a result of my contribution there that I was invited to become a moderator for the gay sub-forum, though as I say, I soon gave that away, as I couldn't fathom half of what people were saying.

Is that a way of saying you have multiple names on ThaiVisa?

and PB ... it wasn't Post counts that I was bringing up .. it was a response to Crafty's "loyalty if nothing else" remark

[craftwork]

Is that a way of saying you have multiple names on ThaiVisa?

Yes...oops! I think I stopped using the other one before I took up craftwork. It has been such a long time since I posted under that name, I cannot be sure.

it was a response to Crafty's "loyalty if nothing else" remark

I didn't mean that to sound as sarcastic as it now looks. I meant it as a compliment...really!

That's as good an example as any of how messages can be misconstrued. Getting across meaning is easier if you use emoticons, but as I hate the things, I deny myself that option.

Edited February 6, 2007 by craftwork

[farang prince]

Is that a way of saying you have multiple names on ThaiVisa?

Yes...oops! I think I stopped using the other one before I took up craftwork. It has been such a long time since I posted under that name, I cannot be sure.

it was a response to Crafty's "loyalty if nothing else" remark

I didn't mean that to sound as sarcastic as it now looks. I meant it as a compliment...really!

That's as good an example as any of how messages can be misconstrued. Getting across meaning is easier if you use emoticons, but as I hate the things, I deny myself that option.

I have read a number of Craftwork's posts and they were interesting and well-written. I have not read his blog, but I will. I'm not sure I understand some of the antipathy towards Craftwork. Anyone who takes the time to explain their gay lifestyle in Thailand is a welcome contributor to this unique and very complex aspect of life.

[craftwork]

Time for an update! Here are some of the latest posts to our gay blog, written by a young Thai and a westerner living in Bangkok. All readers, comments welcome. Posts in English and Thai.

Swatting gay rumours: X, and Jik

The 17 men I've 'eaten': Actress 'Nan' Amita Chinsumrej and her kiss-and-tell book

Family tales: Nui, Guy and Marsha

Black Vanilla: pics

'Film' Ratapoom Tokongsap: pics

I'm a country boy: 'Bogie' Jakrin Silpachiayakit

The Prakitpao Tomtitchong saga

Yamapi's famous bathroom scene

Sondhi Limtongkhul's travelling roadshow: a look back

'Guy' Rachanon Sukprakob, from 'Hor Taew Tak'

Emerging favourite: Alex Randall

The 'swinging' sex resort in Ubon Thani

Go !Go! G-boys packs them in

Emerging favourite: 'Gus' Wiradip Srimalai

Mr Kissy Huggy, aka Bird Macintyre

He's a battler: Christopher Wright

'Ter Gab Chan' cover boys

Lee Dong Wook: pics

Rain's PR problem

Pants dropper

Farewell to Ton: friend dies of Aids

Pai, and Rain: nothing happened!

Pic posts

http://bkkmindscape.blogspot. Add a 'com' after that address, folks